Terrain (Civ5)
Introduction The term 'Terrain' describes the land in Civilization 5 and its features. It is very important to familiarize with those in order to be successful in the game. Base terrain Base terrain is the type of ground a certain tile contains. Other terrain features, like a Forest or Jungle may be present on the terrain, as well as many Resources, but its base never changes and is important for some game calculations and concepts. Sometimes these additional features may be subject to removal, at which the tile will revert to its base stats. Terrain features Many special features may be part of the terrain description - Relief features, Resources, or others. Some of these may be removed, which will effectively alter the type of terrain for gaming purposes. Game descriptions Terrain features, combined with the base terrain type, are often used for common descriptions regarding terrain in the game: * Flat terrain. This includes all Base terrain types which contain no Hills, Forests, or Jungle. Marsh is also flat terrain. * Rough terrain. This includes all Base terrain types which DO include Hills, Forests, or Jungle. Note that Marsh isn't considered Rough terrain! * Lake. This is any expanse of Water tiles (1 to 4 -5) which is enclosed by Land tiles on all sides, but isn't big enough to be deemed a Sea. * Sea/Coast. These are all Water tiles that aren't termed a 'Lake'. * Fresh water. This term includes all Land tiles that border a River, and also Lakes. Terrain and unit mobility The effectiveness and mobility of combat units is affected by the type of terrain they occupy. For more information, see Movement. Natural Wonders There are some unique, incredible terrain features spread across the world. They are known as Natural Wonders. They are special in every sense of the word, and each one is available only once in the world. The number of Natural Wonders per map are limited by the map's size. See below for more info. Terrain potential Each terrain tile may have Production potential of some type. Most commonly, this potential includes Food, Production, or Gold. Natural Wonders may include other types of potential, too. The particular potential a tile has depends on the features present on it, and follow this logic: * Base terrain + Resources OR * Relief/terrain features + Resources What this means is that a Plains base terrain with a Wine resource of it will have a potential of (1 and from the base terrain) + 1 from the Wine. However, a Plains base terrain with a Jungle on it and a Bananas resource will have: 2 from the Jungle (which overrides the base terrain) + 1 from the resource. Later, if you decide to cut down the Jungle, the tile's potential will change to (1 and 1 ) + 1 ! It is important to note that all Terrain/Relief features alter the base terrain potential values. For example, a Hill in the desert will have 2 potential, even though plain desert has no potential of any kind! Tile potential will be used by a city you found nearby, if the tiles in question are worked by its Citizens. Note also that certain buildings, built in the city which controls the tiles, and certain special abilities may alter the tile potential. Also, your Workers may build Improvements on tiles to add more potential. River Rivers are of great importance for civilization historically, and they have special functions in the game as well. Rivers flow between tiles (Which means there is no special River tile), but they provide all tiles that border them with some special features. For example, they determine the formation of Flood plains in desert (all tiles adjacent to a river in a desert area become Flood plains); they provide access to Fresh water to all adjacent tiles ; they allow the construction of a number of Buildings in cities adjacent to them. Also in Vanilla and Gods and Kings, Rivers provide 1 potential to all adjacent tiles (this bonus was removed in Brave New World). *The terrain tooltip indicates what Jungle/Marsh/Forest tiles will turn into when slashed/drained/cut (respectively) **Iroquois move through friendly Forest and Jungle tiles as if a road was present Brave New World In the new expansion pack, potential has been removed from almost all terrain types, with the exception of the Oasis. This was probably done to shift the - producing process away from Terrain and more towards the new Trade Routes system. This makes conquering land with Resources and/or Natural wonders even more important in the early game, and you also need to develop your Trading network really quickly, or you'll find yourself running in the red pretty quickly. Natural wonders Category:Game concepts (Civ5)